


DC Comics Eras: Which Earth, Again?

by Anonymous



Series: DC Comics Reference Work [2]
Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Fandom Primer, Gen, Meta, Nonfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-23
Updated: 2019-11-23
Packaged: 2021-01-23 23:28:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21328444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: A brief, descriptivist guide to the terms used in DC Comics fandom to describe periods of the canon:Earth-2, Earth-1, New Earth, Prime Earth, Crisis on Infinite Earths, Post-Crisis, Zero Hour, Infinite Crisis, Preboot, Flashpoint, New 52, DC Rebirth, Golden Age, Silver Age, Bronze Age...
Series: DC Comics Reference Work [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1552258
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6
Collections: Anonymous





	DC Comics Eras: Which Earth, Again?

There are a lot of different, overlapping terms for eras of DC Comics. Unfortunately, most people who offer to explain them want to talk in depth about the complicated in-universe and/or historiographic justifications for the divisions between eras, and why their precise chronology is best and most correct. This is not helpful when all you want to know is what on Earth-? comics fans are talking about when they say things like, "The Silver Age was wild," or "I prefer preboot to nu52, but I'm warming to Rebirth," or "Enough with with the Crises already!"

The short version:

I. By setting...

*** Earth-2** = The setting of stories published from the mid-1930s - ca. mid 1950s.  
In a story published in 1961, DC Comics retconned the previous several decades of comics, from the start of DC Comics in the mid-1930s through some unspecified endpoint in the 1950s, as having taken place on a parallel universe, which they called Earth-2. Some later stories were also intentionally set in this parallel universe.  
*** Earth-1** = The setting of stories published from ca. the mid-1950s - early 1980s.  
Following the introduction of the idea of parallel universes, it was common for the current versions of those heroes (from "Earth-1") to have adventures with characters from Earth-2 and other parallel universes, usually in stories with titles along the lines of "Crisis on Earth-X", "Crisis on Three Earths", etc. Around this time, DC acquired the rights to superhero properties from several other companies, and those stories got their own Earth designations (e.g., Earth-Four for Charlton Comics superheroes).  
**⁂ _Crisis on Infinite Earths_** = A 1985-1986 crossover event that eradicated Earth-1 and Earth-2 and all the rest.  
In the mid-1980s DC decided to soft-reboot its entire universe with a storyline called _Crisis on Infinite Earths_ in which many characters died or blinked out of existence as Earth-1, Earth-2, and all the rest of the multiverse collapsed into a single, unnamed universe (later given the name "New Earth"). Following this event, writers had the freedom to rewrite their characters' histories from scratch if they so chose. Some characters were radically altered; others weren't changed at all.  
[When people refer to _the_ Crisis, this is the event they're referring to. Not to be confused with other irritatingly similarly named events that would follow.]  
*** New Earth** = The setting of stories published from the late 1980s - late 2011.  
If the aim was to sell comic books, the _Crisis on Infinite Earths_ was a big success. If the aim was to simplify continuity, it was a disaster. So, for both reasons, they tried it again. And again. There was 1994's _Zero Hour: Crisis in Time_ (notable for finally rebooting the Legion of Super-Heroes, which until then had declined to comply with Post-Crisis continuity), 2005's _Infinite Crisis_ (which restored the multiverse and gave the post-Crisis universe a name), 2008's _Final Crisis_ (ahaha, if only)...  
[When people talk about _a_ Crisis, they mean any major crossover event -- often with "Crisis" somewhere in its name -- meant to rewrite reality in a similar way to _Crisis on Infinite Earths_.]  
**⁂ _Flashpoint_** = A 2011 crossover event that eradicated New Earth.  
Like junkies searching for an ever bigger hit, in 2011 DC upped the ante by _hard_ rebooting its universe in the wake of yet another Crisis-type event, called _Flashpoint_.  
*** Prime Earth** = The setting of comics published from October 2011 onward.  
At the end of _Flashpoint_, DC cancelled all comic book series and launched 52 new series (the "New 52") starting with issue #1, claiming this would be an entirely fresh start and that the previous seventy years of DC Comics history were now irrelevant. That lasted five years.  
**⁂ _DC Rebirth_** = A 2016 crossover event that reintroduced aspects of pre-Flashpoint continuity to the New 52 continuity.  
This new Frankensteinian monster of a continuity is still Prime Earth, and that's all I really know. Enjoy it while it lasts. As I write this, DC editorial is no doubt cooking up a new Crisis, one that will solve everything, just like the past dozen Crises did.

II. By event...

**Pre-Crisis** = Before the Crisis on Infinite Earths reboot in 1986-1987. (Often synonymous with Earth-1.)  
**Post-Crisis** = After the Crisis on Infinite Earths reboot in 1986-1987. (Often synonymous with New Earth.)  
**Preboot, Pre-Flashpoint** = Before the 2011 reboot that followed _Flashpoint_. (Often synonymous with New Earth.)  
**New 52, Post-Flashpoint** = The 2011 reboot that followed _Flashpoint_. (Often synonymous with Prime Earth)  
**Rebirth** = After the 2016 event that merged pre-Flashpoint and post-Flashpoint continuity.

III. By era of publication...

* **Golden Age** [of Comic Books] = mid-1930s to 1940s.  
The invention of comic books and the rise of superheroes. Comics of these era are of course dated in outlook and style, cheaply made, often despicably racist, but also vibrant and varied, covering all sorts of genres with all sorts of different styles and approaches. After WWII, there was a decline in comics sales across the board. Some comics historians call the period between the Golden and Silver Ages the "Interregnum", but you don't see that term much in casual discussion. In the context of DC, the term "Golden Age" is roughly synonymous with Earth-2.

* **Silver Age** [of Superhero Comic Books] = mid-1950s to 1960s.  
Superhero comic books get a second wind with the rise of comic book fandom. The comics of this era are stiflingly conformist, authoritarian, juvenile, and sexless to avoid the threat of government censorship. There is a rise in the popularity of science fictional story elements, particularly space adventures and aliens. In the context of DC, the term "Silver Age" is sometimes treated as synonymous with Earth-1, encompassing both the Silver Age and the Bronze Age. A broader, vaguely defined Silver Age is often remembered fondly as a period of lighthearted and unselfconsciously silliness and far out, fantastical plots, in contrast to the darker and edgier period of the '80s and '90s.

* **Bronze Age** [of Superhero Comic Books] = 1970s to mid-1980s.  
The rise of dedicated comic book shops and subscriptions (as opposed to newsstands and drug stores). Superhero comic books start trying to address contemporary political and social issues. Some of it's progressive, some of it's reactionary, all of it's laughably ham-handed, but it's refreshingly earnest and engaged after the carefully bland conformity of the previous decades. During this era, non-white characters finally start to appear here and there. Serialized storytelling is also on the rise.

* **Dark Age/Modern Age/etc.** = There's no consensus yet about age(s) from the late 1980s onward.  
Superhero comic books hit puberty. They become painfully self-conscious, embarrassingly horny, desperate to be seen as mature yet frequently acting like teenaged edgelords, and covered in unsightly blemishes, by which I mean the art, for better and for worse, stopped conforming to a company style and branched out. That is why to this day you find so many comic books drawn by aliens who have no clue what human anatomy looks like and who think "woman" might mean some kind of segmented insect. This is nevertheless my favorite era (or eras) of superhero comics, and is when canon LGBT characters finally show up.

* * *

Note that the settings and events mentioned above apply only to the DCU -- i.e., the main shared universe of (mostly superhero) comic books published by DC. DC has published a number of superhero comics that don't take place in the DCU. There are standalones like Frank Miller's futurefic, _The Dark Knight Returns_; kid-oriented titles like _Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade_; alternate universe comics such as the ones published under the [Elseworlds](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Elseworlds_publications) imprint; tie-in comics for its various TV, movie, cartoons, video games, etc. The franchise with the most tie-in comics is the [DCAU](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DC_animated_universe#Comic_books), the shared universe of many of DC's animated cartoons from the '90s and '00s. Sometimes these Elseworlds and so on get incoporated into the DCU as parallel worlds in the multiverse.

The Arrowverse shows on CBS have referenced the comics by having their own versions of Earth-1, Earth-2, Flashpoint, and Crisis on Infinite Earths.


End file.
